It was misrepresentation if the vendor represented the plot as free from JKW, if it was not mentioned there is no misrepresentation, the buyer takes the property as they find it and if they didn’t do their due diligence then that’s their problem

The person,s solicitor informed him anything you buy from an auction you are tied to that contract.

To me the council is acting illegally by charging for an environmental report and omitting the fact there was JKW on the plot and that they were 2 years into treating it.

But the question is are they.

Victor.

And it got a straightforward answer

The fundamental problem here is that you don’t know what sort of report it was (environmental reports come in all sorts of flavours) and what the brief was. It could have been an environmental impact statement or it might have been a full survey, the latter is a weighty document and is usually prepared in conjunction with the design and build (CDM regulation)

Can we have sight of the report?

Meantime you can’t call it misrepresentation on the grounds that it wasn’t in the report because you haven’t seen the report it’s brief, or any caveats that might be present.

Auctions are the same for all, a professional would (hopefully) not have missed JKW, (it’s a major cost implication so most can spot it a mile off) but if they had they would just have to deal with it out of the contingency, as will your private punter, such are the joys of grabbing bargain at auction.